Beverages of various improved and new formulations are desirable to achieve desired nutritional characteristics, flavor, shelf life, and other objectives. For example, it would be desirable to provide a juice beverage that exhibits increased thickness. Currently, juices comprise varying amounts of solids supplied by sugars, pulp, membranes, and the like. Certain juices have pulp and other solids removed, while others have extra pulp and solids added, depending on the consumer preference.
It would be desirable to provide a thickened drinkable juice beverage that exhibits a smooth mouthfeel and does not exhibit reduced flavor from the thickening agent. Typically, thickness, or body, is provided in foods and beverages by adding known thickening agents such as alginates, carrageenan, sodium carboxymethylcellulose sodium, guar gum and xanthan gum, which usually remain substantially suspended. One drawback to employing such thickening agents in juice beverages is that the mouthfeel of the finished beverage may not match or be consistent with the mouthfeel expected by a consumer for a juice product. Moreover, a juice beverage containing such thickening agents will not meet the standard of identity of a 100% juice or a not from concentrate (NFC) juice. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a thickened juice beverage that contains only fruit or vegetable components, in order to meet the desired juice standard(s) of identity. The thickness of the juice beverage may provide a nectar-like mouthfeel to the beverage.
It is an object of the invention to provide beverages and other beverage products having desirable appearance, taste and health properties. It is an object of at least certain embodiments of the invention to provide juice beverages having improved formulations, including high viscosity. It is another object of the invention to provide juice beverages having increased fiber content. It is a further object of the invention to make use of solids obtained from juice extraction processes, which might otherwise be discarded as waste. These and other objects, features and advantages of the invention or of certain embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following disclosure and description of exemplary embodiments.